Dizziness shouldn’t be taken lightly (even though the majority of cases resolve on its own) as there is greater morbidity associated such as: increased chance of falls, having a stroke, ending up in nursing home care.

Types of dizziness:

paroxymsal positional

acute vestibular neuronitis/labyrinthitis

Menieres+tinitus

migraine

anxiety disorders

vertigo

presyncope

disequilibrium

peripheral vs central vertigo

and the list goes on!….

A simple screening test to separate dizziness requiring medicines and those that require further checkup is if the dizzy spell lasts less than one minute or if it lasts for hours to days. The latter you would consider trial of certain medications and following this further medical treatment should it not improve.

Causes:

Ototoxic: some medications can be toxic the little hairs in our ear leading to permanent hearing loss and dizziness.

Multi-system impairment: data shows that elderly people suffer more dizzy spells than young people. We’re not sure why but perhaps a combined deterioration in visual acuity, muscle strength, hearing ability, etc is the reason; much like in dementia and falls.

Viral infections: of the inner ear leading to inflammation of the vestibular nerve causing mixed signals at the brain.